Arthroscopic knee surgery, although very common throughout Canada (27,000 procedures alone in Ontario) it is not doing much in benefiting patient’s post-surgery, and study shows this minimally invasive surgery is being preformed on people who don’t necessarily need it. The surgery is supposed to be preformed on patients with acute/sports injuries, yet most procedures are done on people with chronic injuries, for example arthritis.

This CBC news article from 2017 explains why we are wasting our healthcare dollars on a surgery that doesn’t help a majority of patients, when we can be putting those dollars to treatments like Shockwave Therapy & Physiotherapy which might provide a better result for less cost.

man holding his knee while experiencing knee pain

Here is why Shockwave Therapy is a better alternative to Arthroscopic knee surgery:

Shockwavetherapy is a completely non-invasive treatment

Arthroscopic knee surgery is invasive and involves an incision in the knee, along with an arthroscope inserted to see where to cut away at tissue. Whereas Shockwave Therapy is a non-invasive modality that uses a high energy acoustic sound wave.

It is only used on patients that it is supposed to be used on

Shockwave Therapy is only intended for people with chronic injuries and will not be used on patients with acute injuries with the exception of muscle spasms.

It is much better cost wise

With arthroscopic knee surgery costing an average of $1,300 per procedure, Shockwave Therapy comes at a fraction of the price, with a suggested 3 – 5 treatments. This means less of your extended health is being put towards fixing your knee(s), and less out of your pocket too!

As another alternative, regular physical therapy and weight loss can help with knee problems too. Here at Vital Life Physio we have a number of modalities which can be used for chronic or acute knee problems such as the Ultrasound or Laser. With Shockwave Therapy and Physiotherapy being not quite the ”quick fix” as having the more invasive surgical proceedure,  they just might be more effective in the long run, which is the ultimate end goal.